In a final concession, the Florida Senate largely abandoned its aggressive campaign to hike rates at Citizens for new policyholders. Instead, a bill passed Thursday and sent to Gov. Rick Scott for approval will steer homeowners away from Citizens without boosting their rates.

After the Senate backed off from the rate-increase language, the Citizens reform bill passed with a bipartisan 32-1 vote.

"We're not getting a whole loaf here, members, but we're getting a lot," said Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, who had originally pushed for the faster rate increases. "I can call it Citizens, light."

The main reform in the scaled-back SB 1770 involves a "clearinghouse" at Citizens, a mechanism to steer policyholders into the private sector. Homeowners with Citizens who receive a comparable insurance rate from a private insurer through the clearinghouse would be forced into the private market.

Several senators from South Florida and Tampa Bay who voted against the more aggressive bill last week changed their votes and supported the new bill.

"I believe the bill we have today is a good bill," said Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, who flipped her vote and supported SB 1770 on Thursday. "When (Sen. Simmons) assured me today that there were no rate hikes, I was very, very happy."

The Florida House, working with Gov. Rick Scott, played a major role in scaling back the pocketbook impact of the reform effort. House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said throughout the session that he preferred an "incremental," rather than drastic, plan for fixing Citizens.

When lawmakers first proposed a plan for reforming Citizens in February, it brimmed with proposals that would help the insurance industry and hit homeowners hard. It included provisions to allow Citizens to raise rates by 13 percent each year for current policyholders, uncapped rates for new policyholders and additional charges and fees for all.

One by one, as political opposition to rate increases mounted, the controversial proposals were shed from the bill. The Senate bill faced further obstacles when Citizens president Barry Gilway said publicly that it would lead to rate increases of more than 60 percent in several parts of the state.

The proposal passed the Senate last week on a 25-14 vote, but the House stepped in and sent its own plan to the Senate, stripping out the 60 percent rate increases. That bill passed the House on a 111-6 vote.

The Senate agreed to concede to the House plan, which also includes several other reforms. The proposal prohibits Citizens from covering new homes built right on the water and reduces Citizens' maximum coverage limit to $700,000 over three years. The House and Senate plans also offer new accountability measures for Citizens.

The proposals require Citizens to have an inspector general and abide by state contracting rules, changes inspired by Times/Herald reports of corporate misconduct and overspending by executives last year. The company's board — which has been accused of enacting anticonsumer proposals in recent years — would gain another member who would serve as a consumer advocate.

With more than 1.2 million policies, Citizens is the state's largest insurance company and can levy "assessments" on consumers after a major storm.

A spokesperson for Scott's office said the governor was reviewing the proposal.